Page 1864 - war-and-peace

Chapter IV

Bennigsen’s note and the Cossack’s information that the
left flank of the French was unguarded were merely final in-
dications that it was necessary to order an attack, and it was
fixed for the fifth of October.
On the morning of the fourth of October Kutuzov signed
the dispositions. Toll read them to Ermolov, asking him to at-
tend to the further arrangements.
‘All rightall right. I haven’t time just now,’ replied Ermolov,
and left the hut.
The dispositions drawn up by Toll were very good. As in
the Austerlitz dispositions, it was writtenthough not in Ger-
man this time:
‘The First Column will march here and here,’ ‘the Second
Column will march there and there,’ and so on; and on pa-
per, all these columns arrived at their places at the appointed
time and destroyed the enemy. Everything had been admi-
rably thought out as is usual in dispositions, and as is always
the case, not a single column reached its place at the appoint-
ed time.
When the necessary number of copies of the dispositions
had been prepared, an officer was summoned and sent to de-
liver them to Ermolov to deal with. A young officer of the
Horse Guards, Kutuzov’s orderly, pleased at the importance
of the mission entrusted to him, went to Ermolov’s quarters.

1864 War and Peace